Biharis living in northeast bat for ‘good government’ back home

Agartala/Guwahati: People from Bihar living in different parts of the northeast are intimately monitoring the on-going assembly polls in the state.

Thousands of people from Bihar are living in several northeastern states, especially in Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, and engaging themselves in various trades and diverse works.

Most of them are reluctant to go to their home state to cast votes as they would lose their daily income for several days.

“We want a good government in Bihar as the state crucially needs superior governance for the economic upliftment of the backward people. We hate caste-based politics,” said Mahindar Kumar Mahato, who sells a mixture of nuts and peas in Agartala.

A resident of Vaishali district in Bihar, Mahato said “If we go to cast our votes in Bihar we would lose income for several days. A negligible number of people from different northeastern states have gone to their home districts to cast their votes and to see their family members.”

According to the Bihari people in northeast, in this year’s assembly election, corruption, development and price rise are playing a vital role in deciding the fate of political parties. These issues might affect the voting pattern, they added.

“In previous elections in Bihar, caste-based issues were very vital matters, but this time people want good all-weather roads, good health services, quality education and creation of job opportunities,” said Raju Kumar Yadav, a resident of Purnia (Sadar), one of the seven constituencies of Purnia district which would vote on November 5 in the last phase of five-phased Bihar assembly polls.

Raju Kumar Yadav, who makes linen items, said “Corruption should be checked and employment opportunities and educational facilities should be improved. Infrastructure, including roads and development, should be top agenda of political parties.”

Suraj Sheikh, 37, from Kishanganj in Bihar, a Muslim-dominated district, works as a sub-contractor on different projects of the Northeast Frontier Railway. He is based at Maligaon in Guwahat and stays in a rented house. He came to Assam 10 years ago and is trying to enrol himself in the state’s electoral list.

Dropping out of college due to poverty, he initially worked as a manager and site overseer for a local contractor and learned ropes. He has been taking sub-contracts for the past two years.

“We were a big family, four elder sisters and two brothers. Development in Bihar had been weak. In our village there were hardly a handful of graduates. I married here (Assam), but to a Bihari girl. Now Assam is my home and elections in Bihar have no meaning because the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) would be same the like Lalu (Prasad Yadav) or Nitish (Kumar), Sheikh said.

“Yes Nitish (Kumar) did good work, but not across Bihar. I am against communal and caste-based politics played out in Bihar by some political parties.”

Rickshaw puller Raghuram Paswan said “Due to abject poverty I have migrated to Guwahati many years back. We live in a small shanty where we five rickshaw pullers stay – all from Khagaria district of Bihar.”

“Our village has seen a bit of development these days but we are uneducated and have no work in modern Bihar. I have been here in Guwahati for nine years; before that I was in Tinsukia in upper Assam, pulling rickshaw for 11 years there before ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom) militant started killing Biharis.”

“We (Bihari) are still considered outsiders in some parts of the northeastern states. As we are not living Bihar for many years, so it is pointless to go and vote there, though Nitish Kumar is my favourite,” Paswan added.

The new move the Arvind Kejriwal's party denounces the concept of digitalization

The BJP on Monday held Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal responsible for the death of a sanitation worker in a drain saying that the government was playing with their lives as they are not given protective gear.

“This is not the first time that such an incident has happened. Due to the negligence of the government, sanitation staff goes for cleaning sewers and dies there after inhaling toxic fumes. They are never saved even after rescue operations,” Delhi BJP Chief Manoj Tiwari told reporters here.

His remarks come a day after a sanitation worker choked to death after he got trapped inside an underground drain while cleaning it in north Delhi’s Jahroda area.

The work of cleaning the drain was being carried out by the Delhi government’s flood control department.

Sanitation workers are our helpers and Kejriwal government is playing with their lives ,www.thestatesman.com

“Sanitation workers are our helpers and Kejriwal government is playing with their lives,” he said.

Highlighting the deaths of sanitation workers in Delhi in the past few years, the BJP MP from the North East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency said that in September 2018, five sanitation workers died while in August 2017, 10 died inside sewers.

“Kejriwal is responsible for the deaths of sanitation workers who die while cleaning sewers and the investigating agencies should take action against him,” he said.

Attacking Kejriwal, Tiwari said, “During the last three to four years, more than 60 workers have died.”

He also accused Kejriwal of not fulfilling his promise of providing safety equipment to sewer workers and mechanical sweeping.

A senior Delhi Police official said that it has registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code over the death of the sanitation worker.

The sanitation worker has been identified as Kishan, 37, a resident of north Delhi’s Wazirabad area.